Equine Affaire is serious horsing around

Friday

Apr 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 12, 2013 at 10:37 AM

Balancing eggs atop poles, heaving hay bales and flipping "pancakes" were only part of the timed challenges at yesterday's Equine Affaire riding competition at the Ohio Expo Center. The 30 competitors also had to memorize the course's 15 obstacles in Cooper Arena in just a few hours and guide their horses through the course, much of it while backing them instead of riding forward.

Dean Narciso, The Columbus Dispatch

Balancing eggs atop poles, heaving hay bales and flipping “pancakes” were only part of the timed challenges at yesterday’s Equine Affaire riding competition at the Ohio Expo Center.

The 30 competitors also had to memorize the course’s 15 obstacles in Cooper Arena in just a few hours and guide their horses through the course, much of it while backing them instead of riding forward.

The event is a crowd pleaser, “more than anything, entertaining,” said 69-year-old Dave Huge, who was riding Skip, a quarter horse.

The versatile ride’s events include the “pig sty,” which requires horses to step into a baby pool filled with peanut packing foam, from which a stuffed piglet is snared and dunked in mud; flipping disks (pancakes); and prodding 3-foot inflatable soccer balls (penned sheep) with a polo stick for a herder’s cane. If obstacles are not completed within 30 seconds, riders are penalized.

“They’re trying to duplicate what you’d find when you’re riding,” said Huge, of Butler in Knox County. He described the obstacles as “an imitation of real work, like cutting calves, roping cows and fixing fence.”

So how did he do?

“We ran as hard as we could run, and we didn’t even come close.”

“It challenges every aspect of the horse and rider’s ability to communicate, work well together and remain calm,” said Rachel Akers, 24, atop Expect the Obvious, her brown-and-white paint.

The event, in its 20th year, runs through Sunday and includes a trade show with hundreds of exhibitors; clinics, seminars and demonstrations related to horse management and competition; and a nightly musical “celebration” of the horse. It typically draws about 100,000 visitors annually.

Akers and Expect the Obvious eased through the first sections of the Versatile Horse and Rider Competition yesterday without incident, but forgot one obstacle. That required her to lift “clock” hands attached to ropes and re-set them from 6:15 to 7:20 by galloping in circles.

“I forgot where I was going,” said Akers, of Monroe in southwestern Ohio. Losing track of time cost her a spot in today’s finals.

Riders from as far as New York and Canada competed, having qualified by submitting videos showing off their skills.

Among the youngest was Claire Hale, 18, an Upper Arlington High School senior, who had been working with Tico, a quarter horse, in Plain City only since January.

“Going into it, I thought he would be pretty good,” Hale said. “He’s super quiet and is pretty sensitive.”

But Tico was abused as a colt. “He has real big trust issues with people,” said Hale, who has been riding since fourth grade. She also failed to qualify.

“You’re asking this of a horse whose natural instinct is to shy away from noise, people and shiny things,” said Carol Ocock, Hale’s friend.

Steve Barrett, 61, of Wheatland, Ind., blasted through the course. Nerves were not an issue until he approached the 7-foot poles, reins in one hand, a basket of golden eggs in the other, and his quarter horse — Genuine Doc — balking.